FORESTS IN SOUTH WESTLAND TO BE SURVEYED SOON

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 July 1947, Page 2

FORESTS IN SOUTH WESTLAND TO BE SURVEYED SOON

South Westland’s forests will be surveyed by the State Forest Service next summer. This research will be part of a comprehensive survey of New Zealand forests which is being carried out by the service. The survey is based on aerial photographs, and, although, the work began 18 months ago, it. will probably be three or four years before the part of the operation covering commercial forests is finished, and it is estimated that it will take several years after that to survey the protection forests. Details of the survey have been announced by Mr A. P. Thomson, officer in charge of the national forest survey, who said the survey was started in an attempt to get a reasonably accurate estimate of the total remaining indigenous forest resources of New Zealand. The survey was also concerned with describing conditions of natural regeneration, and the effect of deer and other introduced animals. Other Aspects Other aspects were the development of secondary - forests following logging or fire, and in general, a fairly comprehensive survey of the botanical composition of the forests. The department felt that while the survey for quantity was being made very good use could be made of the working parties to record the other mailers of interest and to build up a record of observations which could form the basis for the scientific management of New Zealand’s native forests.

Mr Thomson said photographs enabled the bush edge to be defined accurately, and much more cheaply than by ground surveys. The major types of forest were recognisable on the photographs, which could be used for making forest-type maps. ’Field parties took the photographs into the field and in obtaining a volume estimate they described the forest types which had been delineated on the photographs. Long-Term Value

It was hoped that ultimately all the native forest area, including protected forests such as those in the headwaters of the Canterbury rivers, would be covered. Both staff and labour were in short supply, but in the summer the labour would be augmented by university students. Last summer 12 field parties, each of three or four men, had been at work. The aerial photographs were taken by a private firm, which used a Beechcraft aircraft.

There was more to the survey than the immediate objective of assessing the remaining volume of timber for commercial use, Mr Thomson said. It would determine how quickly the timber trade must switch from native to exotic forests, but, more than that, it would have the long-term value of establishing the facts on which "the native forests policy for the next 200 or 500 years could be based.